Surgical Critical Care Fellowship

• Four categorical positions each year
  • Two of which stay for 2nd year acute care surgery fellowship
• One-year ACGME-accredited fellowship
• 120 ICU beds, 44 operating rooms, Level 1 Trauma Center and Burn Center
• Affiliated with Boston Children’s Hospital and Dana Farber Cancer Institute
• Core rotations in Cardiac ICU, Thoracic ICU, Surgical ICU, Trauma/Burn ICU, Med-Surg ICU
  • Extensive exposure to VA/VV ECMO, lung/heart transplant, complex acute care surgery patients
  • Daily protected fellow-level didactic sessions
• Significant elective time to allow for catered experience
• Established ultrasound curriculum with option for certification

• Provide the highest quality critical care training for our fellows through evidence-based approaches to patient management in a high volume, high acuity center with a diverse, multidisciplinary faculty.
• To train and mentor individuals interested in academic surgery and help develop the necessary skills in surgical research, education and/or administration leadership to jump start a successful academic career following fellowship.
• To maximize the trainee's exposure to complex critical care patients and optimize their abilities and responsibilities in patient management.
• To train and cultivate future critical care surgeon leaders.

Brigham and Women’s Hospital is an academic, clinical, and scientific powerhouse with a long history of firsts. We foster a shared commitment to predict, prevent and treat the world’s toughest diseases. Our affiliation with the Dana Farber Institute, a world leader in cancer treatment and research, as well as Boston Children’s Hospital, named the number one children’s hospital in the country for the past decade, offers our fellows the opportunity to take care of some of the sickest and most complex patients in the world. Fellows are active participants in multidisciplinary discussions that often are on the cutting edge of medicine.

Our culture of providing excellence in patient care, teaching and research affords an exceptional environment for clinical training and participation in exciting advances in basic and clinical research.

Committed to teaching and mentoring the next generation of surgeons and leaders in medicine, our faculty is comprised of experienced clinicians who impart a breadth of knowledge and expertise during clinical rounds and in clinics. In addition, our faculty have a diverse array of academic interests and expertise that allows for successful mentorship relationships for our fellows. Meet our Faculty.

Rotations

In order to become experts in management of critically ill surgical patients, fellows spend the majority of time (weeks required by ACGME) providing care and supervising trainees in one of our core ICU units:

• Surgical Intensive Care (10 beds)
• Trauma/Burn Intensive Care (10 beds)
• Cardiac Surgical Intensive Care (20-24 beds)
• Medical-Surgical Intensive Care (10 beds)
• Thoracic Surgical Intensive Care (10-12 beds)

Our ICUs are staffed by a broad group of physicians including surgeons, anesthesiologists, emergency medicine physicians, obstetric-gynecologists, and interventional radiology intensivists. Within this model, patients and learners benefit immensely from a multidisciplinary approach to care and teaching.

We dedicate a total of 12 weeks to elective, to allow our fellows the flexibility to individualize their year of training. Elective opportunities include:

Didactics

Fellows attend daily didactic seminars that are protected, exclusively for the surgical/anesthesia ICU fellows. Additional conferences include General Surgery M&M, SICU/MICU M&M, Journal club, Trauma/ACS surgery research meetings, and thoracic case conferences.

In partnership with The Harvard Program in Global Surgery and Social Change

Brigham and Women’s Hospital has a long history of meaningful global health engagement. Until his death in 2022, global health icon Dr. Paul Farmer considered Brigham his academic and clinical home.

The Harvard Program in Global Surgery and Social Change (PGSSC) is a leader in the field of global surgery, training over 100 research fellows and research collaborators in global surgery since 2008, and the force behind seminal global surgery efforts including The Lancet Commission on Global Surgery. To this day, the PGSSC continues to be at the forefront of the global surgery movement, with a robust fellowship program, driving prominent policy and advocacy initiatives, and designated as a World Health Organization Collaborating Centre for Surgical Research and Policy.

The Brigham and Women’s Hospital Division of Trauma, Burns, Surgical Critical Care, and Emergency General Surgery, led by Dr. Ali Salim, is home to a high concentration of global health-focused acute care trauma surgeons. Dr. Robert Riviello has significant experience in global surgery partnerships and research and is Director of the Harvard PGSSC; Dr. Nakul Raykar is Fellowship Director of PGSSC and leads the Systems for Trauma and Blood and Global Surgery (STAB) Lab at PGSSC; Dr. Geoffrey Anderson is Associate Fellowship Director of PGSSC and directs the Trauma, Implementation science, Global surgery, and Equity Research (TIGER) Lab at PGSSC. Collectively, this team has extensive research, clinical, policy, and educational partnerships that designated Acute Care Surgery fellows can participate in during their time at BWH.

Global Surgery Track Components:

The Brigham is dedicated to patient centered research and innovation, which is also core to our division of trauma, burn, and surgical critical care. We expect our fellows to actively participate in research and join our divisions research efforts. We are fortunate to have one of the most productive surgical public health research centers, The Center for Surgery and Public Health (CSPH) housed within the Brigham which is a joint initiative with Harvard Medical School and the Harvard. T.H. Chan School of Public Health.  Most of our faculty are actively involved at CPSH (including the current Director of the Center, Dr. Zara Cooper).   

We also are very proud of our Gillian Reny Stepping Strong Center for Trauma Innovation, whose mission is to catalyze multidisciplinary collaboration to inspire groundbreaking innovation, effective prevention and compassionate intervention to both civilians and military heroes who endure traumatic injuries and events.  Fellows are welcome to join the current initiatives or propose their own ideas. 

The surgical critical care fellowship program matches four fellows each year to the one-year clinical program. Fellowship positions are matched via the National Resident Matching Program (NRMP). All applicants should apply submit via the SCC and ACS Fellowship Application Service (SAFAS).

If you have any additional questions about the application process or our fellowship, please contact Deirdre McLaren at dtmclaren@bwh.harvard.edu.

We require the following documents to be available for download through SAFAS for a complete application to be reviewed:

• Curriculum vitae (CV)
• Personal statement
• Three letters of recommendation
• USMLE transcript
• ABS in-training exam scores

Our deadline for receipt of your application and all supporting documents for the fellowship position starting August 1, 2025 is July 1, 2024. Interviews are granted on a rolling basis by receipt date.

Each application is reviewed in its entirety with a focus toward a combination of overall academic excellence, leadership ability, career development potential and personal character.

We interview approximately 30-40 candidates for the program each year. Although we receive applications from many well-qualified candidates, it is not possible to interview all who apply. Those who are invited will be notified on a rolling basis based on the application receipt and review date for interview sessions in May, June and July. All interviews are held virtually.

With our United Against Racism Initiative, Mass General Brigham is dedicated to diversity, equity, and inclusion in our workforce. Brigham and Women’s Hospital’s Center for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) promotes this mission by offering mentoring, training, networking events, and more to foster career advancement and professional development. The DEI also supports a number of employee resource groups to provide support and community.  

Fellows at Brigham and Women’s have access to resources to help them stay healthy and manage work-life balance. Resources include our robust Employee Assistance Program, a lease guaranty program to assist with moving to the Boston area, transportation and parking programs, loan repayment and deferment options, mental health tools, and parenting resources such as lactation rooms and equipment, day care, and back-up childcare services. Visit our GME Website for more information.

*Also completed the 2^nd year ACS Fellowship